HRAB 07-17-90 Meeting Agendar
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COUNTY of FREDERICK
MEMORANDUM
TO: Historic,Resources Board Members
FROM: KCT, Deputy Director
DATE: July 3, 1990
RE: July 17, 1990 Meeting and Agenda
Department of Planning and Development
703/665-5651
FAX 703/667-0370
There will be a meeting of the Historic Resources Board Tuesday
July 17, 1990, at 7:30 p.m., in the conference room of the Old
Court House, 9 Court Square, Winchester, Virginia.
Please let me know if you are unable to attend.
There are also some informational items enclosed.
AGENDA
1. Presentation from subcommittee on Historic Sites List.
2. Review of present status of HRAB in relation to adopted work
program.
3. Discussion of various methods of historic Preservation.
4. Other
9 Court Square - P.O. Box 601 - Winchester, Virginia - 22601
Historic Resources Advisory Board, Agenda 5/15/90 page 2
1. Members will recall, that in an effort to improve the
productivity of the Board, a subcommittee was established at the
May meeting to work on the list of potential sites for recognition
as historically significant. The subcommittee was assigned the
task of completing and refining the list in terms of categories
and priorities. The committee will report on their progress.
2. The staff would like to review briefly the status of the HRAB
in relation to the adopted work program. A copy of the work
program is enclosed.
Members are asked to consider whether there are goals which should
be added to the Comprehensive Plan in relation to historic
preservation (That section of the plan is also enclosed). This
relates to items A and B listed on the work program for May.
Specifically, does the committee feel the existing goals are those
they should be striving for, or are there others which should be
included?
3. The staff has researched the historic preservation efforts being
used by a number of jurisdictions throughout the state. Some of
these methods may be useful in achieving the goals established for
Frederick County.
4. Other
A)
C)
D)
E)
HISTORIC RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD
WORK PROGRAM
MAY
Clearly define what it is we are trying to achieve
* What are the specific issues the HRAB needs to address?
Establish Specific Goals in a format that can be included in
Comprehensive Plan.
* Promote preservation of historical sites
- through what means?
* Increased public education and awareness
- through what means, Historic Weekend, others?
* Recognition of specific sites
- in what manor
- how should we proceed?
* others?
Set priorities.
* Preservation of endangered structures/sites?
* Promotion of "Historic Weekend"
* Battlefield Preservation?
* Education
* Tourism
* others?
Set meeting date to discuss organization of "Historic weekend
with area groups.
Establish a subcommittee to work with Maral on completing and
refining the list of historic sites in the county.
* why are the sites listed significant?
- age, unique character, threatened with demolition?
- can they be grouped, how?
- are some more significant then others?
JUNE
A) Meet with representatives of area groups to discuss possible
"Historic Weekend"
* How can we promote idea?
- Request to Board of Supervisors and City Council
for endorsement and/or money?
- get someone to take charge of effort
* What types of activities/events might be involved?
JULY
A) Report from subcommittee on refined list of sites which are
of potential significance on a county wide bases
* Do we agree with proposals?
* How should we proceed with recognition?
- statement from Board of Supervisors
- plaque
- letter to property owner
- other?
B) Examine some approaches to historic preservation
* which methods would best achieve established goals?
- which might work in this area?
* which should be mentioned in comprehensive plan?
AUGUST
A) Discussion of other items to be included in historic
Preservation component of Comprehensive Plan
* Work on proposal for public meetings.
B) Staff presentation and discussion of draft components of a
historic preservation ordinance
* what changes additions are needed?
Historic Resources Advisory Board, Agenda 5/15/90 page 5
SEPTEMBER
A) Refine Comprehensive Plan components and recommendations for
Public meetings.
* additions or changes?
B) Discussion of revised Historic Preservation Ordinance.
HISTORY
For 12,000 years a sparse population of Indians lived in this area; but many more traveled
through on the Indian Path from New York and Pennsylvania to winter in Georgia and
South Carolina. The first Europeans to come through the Shenandoah Valley were Jesuit
missionaries in 1632, and details of this wilderness area were first shown on a map by a
Frenchman, Samuel de Champlain.
English ownership of Frederick County was originally by the Virginia Company but was
taken over by the Crown in 1624. In 1649, Charles II granted seven royalist supporters
the land 'bounded by and within the heads" of the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers.
By 1681, Thomas, the Second Lord Culpeper, owned most of this original land grant.
After he died in 1689, his daughter married Thomas, the Fifth Lord Fairfax, and later,
their son Thomas, the Sixth Lord Fairfax, inherited the whole landgrant.
By the 1650's various traders, trappers, and explorers were coming to the Shenandoah
Valley. Dr. John Lederer from Hamburg Germany documented his visit to the Valley in
1670 in his diary. English colonel, Cadwallader Jones, explored the central Valley in 1673,
and in 1716, Governor Alexander Spotswood and his fifty "Knights of the Golden
Horseshoe" crossed into the Valley through Swift Run Gap and returned with glowing
accounts.
Englishmen settled the piedmont, then pushed west by foot and horse through passes in
the Blue Ridge, and many more German and Scotch -Irish settlers came down the valleys
from Philadelphia and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Some of the earliest settlers were Quakers
who built the Hopewell Friends Meeting House which still stands near Clearbrook. These
settlers were attracted by the fertile soils and the abundant forest and water resources.
The Government of Colonial Virginia wanted this wilderness settled as quickly as possible,
as a buffer against Indians, but Robert "King" Carter, Lord Fairfax's agent, was settling
Fairfax's land slowly in large plantations. The government of Virginia had chartered
counties in the landgrant as settlement spread up the Northern Neck and west through
the land grant. Virginia began to argue that Fairfax's landgrant ended at the Blue Ridge,
and began granting up to 1,000 acres each to settler families west of the Blue Ridge.
Virginia gave particular developers the right
acres per family within a general "grant" area.
settled with a house and orchard within two
to recruit settlers and sell them up to 1,000
Each parcel would revert to Virginia unless
years.
Abraham Hollingsworth settled near the site of Abrams Delight in about 1729. Owen
Thomas and Jeremiah Smith came to Back Creek in 1730 and settled on 806 acres granted
in Thomas' name. Smith left and returned with a wife before 1741. His log cabin is now
part of a house west of Back Creek and south of Route 50. In 1732, Jost Hite settled
16 families on his 5,000 acre "grant" and built Hite's fort at Bartonville.
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The Indian Path became the Great Wagon Road and Indians were dispossessed westward
by treaty and force of arms. Frederick County was created from western Orange County
by the House of Burgesses on December 21, 1738 and was named after the Prince of
Wales.
James Wood, County Surveyor for Orange County, platted a town at the County seat,
which he named Winchester, after his birthplace. It consisted of 26 half -acre lots and
three streets within 1300 acres, which he claimed as wilderness land owned by Virginia.
Those streets are now Loudoun, Boscawen and Cameron Streets.
County government in Virginia was originally by self-perpetuating courts. Frederick
County's Court was proclaimed and organized in 1743, and its officials took their oaths
of office on November 11 of that year. It first met at the surveying office of its clerk,
James Wood, at the site on which he later built Glen Burnie.
By 1743, the Frederick County court admitted that Lord Fairfax's land included the
County. At the age of 16, George Washington was a member of a surveying party that
came to Frederick County for Lord Fairfax in 1748. In 1749, Lord Fairfax moved to
Frederick County and built his home, Greenway Court, at White Post. He accepted
Wood's 1,300 acre claim and other additional lots at Winchester. Eventually, eleven other
counties would be created from the 3,824 square miles included in the original Frederick
County.
George Washington was associated with Winchester and Frederick County between the
years of 1748 and 1765. Early during those years he maintained a surveying office in
Winchester. During the French and Indian War, he was given a Commission and later
made Commander in Chief of the colonial forces with headquarters in Winchester.
Washington held his first elective offices representing Frederick County, having been
elected to the house of Burgesses in 1758 and 1761.
Winchester played an important part in the American Revolution. Local riflemen under
the command of Daniel Morgan were among the first to join the fight.
During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries life in the current Frederick
County area centered around small family farms. Local farms tended to be smaller than
farms to the east. During this period wheat production became the center of the local
economy, along with cattle production. In 1820, there were fifty flour mills in Frederick
County along with numerous sawmills, tanneries, and other business activities.
Economic life was centered around Winchester and other local towns including Stephens
City, Middletown, Kernstown, and Gainesboro. There were a large number and diversity
of craftsmen and merchants in these towns. The strongest influence on the local economy
was the Great Wagon Road, which later became Route 11 south and which carried settlers
and travelers from Philadelphia, south through the Valley and to the west. Activity
associated with this road made Winchester one of the largest towns in western Virginia.
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Frederick County played a significant part in the Civil War. The northern Shenandoah
Valley supplied food, livestock, horses, and soldiers to the southern cause. The Valley
was also important because of its strategic location in relation to Washington D.C. The
town of Winchester changed hands in the war about 70 times, an average of once every
three weeks for four years.
Major local battles included the First Battle of Kernstown in March of 1862, during which
General Stonewall Jackson suffered his only tactical defeat during the Valley Campaign
but did succeed in keeping Union troops in the Valley from leaving to reinforce McClellan
on the peninsula. In May of 1862, Jackson's army defeated the Union troops at the First
Battle of Winchester.
In the Second Battle of Winchester in 1863, confederate troops successfully attacked and
defeated Union troops occupying forts on the western side of Winchester. Union troops
were again defeated at the second battle of Kernstown in 1864.
At the Third Battle of �4Winchester General Philip Sheridan's Union troops successfully
attacked confederate troops at Winchester. With the high numbers of losses on both
sides, a new war of attrition was to begin in the Valley from which the southern forces
would never recover. For three weeks in 1864, Sheridan's troops undertook the infamous
"Burning" to end Confederate strength in the Valley. Union troops burned 2,000 barns,
120 mills, and a half a million bushels of grain and confiscated 50,000 head of livestock
in the Valley. Virginia's richest valley was left desolate.
In October of 1864, Jubal Early's Confederate troops were entrenched south of Cedar
Creek. The Union troops were encamped just north of Cedar Creek. A surprise attack
by the Confederates drove the Union troops to the north. General Sheridan rallied his
troops and attacked, driving the Confederates back across Cedar Creek. This victory
helped boost Union morale and helped President Lincoln win reelection.
After the war, old economic activities resumed and new activities began. New businesses
included a tannery, dairying, farm machinery, and shipping. A variety of agricultural
activities continued. Fruit growing and processing became particularly important early in
the twentieth century. Economic activities continued to diversify in the twentieth century
to include a number of manufacturing activities including plastics, automotive products,
containers and other products. Activities continued to be based on the accessibility of
the area and on north -south travel along the route that was once the Great Wagon Road
and is now Route 11 and Interstate 81.
Historic Preservation
There are a number of historic sites in Frederick County. The following sites are listed
on both the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register:
Belle Grove
Hopewell Friends Meeting House
Monte Vista
Springdale House and Mill Complex
Willa Cather House (birthplace)
St. Thomas Episcopal Church (Middletown)
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There are a number of other historic sites in the County. There are also several Civil
War battlefield sites that played an important role in that conflict. The Civil War Sites
include the following:
Battlefields:
First and Second Battles of Winchester
Third Battle of Winchester
First and Second Battles of Kernstown
Cedar Creek
Fortifications:
Star Fort
Collier Redoubt
Parkins Mill Battery
Entrenchments:
Nineteenth Corps Line
1864 - 1865 Winter Line
There is a need to clearly locate, recognize, and designate all significant historic sites in
the County. As the County develops, there is a need to find methods to protect the most
significant sites.
The Winchester -Frederick County Historical Society is undertaking an inventory of local
historic resources. This project will document the location of numerous sites. Such sites
could be recognized by the County through the awarding of historic plaques to property
owners.
In 1989, the Board of Supervisors established a Historic Resources Advisory Committee
to provide detailed information on historic resources to the Planning Commission and
Board of Supervisors. The Historic Resources Advisory Committee is charged with the
following:
Developing standards concerning which sites are significant.
Using the standards to select particular sites to be recommended to the Board of
Supervisors for recognition as historically significant.
Developing recommendations on methods to preserve recognized sites, including the
establishment of historic districts.
Reviewing particular development proposals.
Developing recommendations on the use of historic resources in association with
tourism, economic development and education.
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LEGEND
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BATTEFIELDS-
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1.
First Battle of Kernstown
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2.
First Battle of Winchester
3.
Second Battle of Winchester
and Stephensons Depot
4.
Engagement at Rutherfords Farm
5.
Second Battle of Kernstown
6.
Third Battle of Winchester
7.
Battle of cedar creek
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FORTIFICATIONS AND ENTRENCHMENTS-
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8.
Star Fort
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9.
Fort Collier
10.
Parkins Mill Battery
11.
1864 Winter Line
12.
19th Corp Entrenchments
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FREDERICK COUNTY, VIRGINIA
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Zoning or other regulatory methods can be used to help protect the most important
resources. In addition, incentives allowed by law for the rehabilitation, adaptive reuse or
restoration of historic structures should be considered.
Care should be taken in the design and provision of streets and utilities in historic areas
to maintain the hionr;oni integritjr and c—h rvntnr of hictorin n=c The prntec+ . - of
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historic areas should be carefully considered in establishing new roads. Land use patterns
should be planned that are harmonious with the historic environment.
Historic preservation can play an important role in economic development. Tourism is
an important local industry. The possibility of improving the attractiveness of the area
to tourists should be considered in a systematic manner. The protection of historic
resources will play an important role in this effort.
Historic Preservation Policy
A number of historic preservation issues have been identified, including the following:
The need to identify and designate historic sites, structures and landscapes
The economic and cultural importance of historic resources
The need to develop methods to protect historic resources.
The following are policies for historic preservation.
Goal - Protect the historic resources in Frederick County.
Strategy 1 - Inventory and designate historic sites or districts in the County.
Strategy 2 - Study and adopt methods to preserve historic resources.
Strategy 3 - Incorporate historic resources in efforts to promote tourism.
Strate 4 - Carefully consider the impacts of land use, development and facility decisions
on historic resources.
Strategy 5 - Develop a comprehensive approach to historic preservation involving a system
of sites and battlefields dedicated or protected in a coordinated fashion.
Implementation Methods:
1. Undertake a complete investigation, documentation, evaluation, registration, and
recognition of historic sites. Recognize sites with a process of plaques and signs.
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2. Continue to use the Historic Resources Advisory Committee to assist the County
with information and recommendations on historic resources.
3. Study possible methods for protecting historic resources including the designations
of historic districts, zoning methods, tax incentives, and impact analysis. Voluntary
methods and methods involving incentives are preferred. Carefully consider the
impacts of decisions concerning land use, roads, utilities, and facilities. Develop
design standards for historic areas and locations. Strong support should be given to
private initiatives.
4. Include concerns for historic preservation and tourism in economic development
strategies.
5. Use the dedication of land and historic districts to develop a comprehensive system
for battlefield and historic site preservation. Develop the system of battlefield
memorials and districts to promote education and tourism. Designate areas to be
dedicated in the Comprehensive Plan.
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